1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a walk supporting device that supports walk of a user.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally as a walk supporting device of this type, there is known a walk supporting device that includes a waist support belt worn around the waist of the user and a pair of left and right leg links coupled to the waist support belt on both sides in a horizontal direction via joint sections equivalent to human hip joints (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-220102).
In the walk supporting device of the conventional example described above, it is necessary to wear the waist support belt around the waist tight in order to surely transmit supporting forces generated by the leg links to the body of the user. Thus, the user tends to feel restraint. Moreover, since the joint sections at the upper ends of the left and right leg links protrude on both sides of the waist of the user, the hands of the user tend to hit the joint sections and upper portions of the leg links coupled to the joint sections when the user swings the arms during walk. This leads to poor usability.
Conventionally, there is also known a walk supporting device that includes four support legs having wheels at lower ends thereof and vertically provided on a frame surrounding a user from a rear side to both ends in a horizontal direction and a saddle-like seating member attached to the frame on which the user is seated in a straddling manner, detects a force applied to the seating member by the user, and drives the wheels to increase the force to a predetermined target value (see, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3156367).
In this walk supporting device, although it is possible to reduce the restraint felt by the user, it is impossible to use the walking support device in a narrow space because of a large size thereof. Further, since the hands of the user tend to hit the frame when the user swings the arms during walk, usability is not satisfactory.
As described above, the conventional walk supporting devices have various deficiencies. Therefore, the inventors have reached an idea of a walk supporting device that supports a seating member, on which the user is seated in a straddling manner, from below with a pair of left and right leg links. According to this walk supporting device, it is possible to surely transmit supporting forces generated by the leg links from the inner side of leg to the body of the user via the seating member. The user only has to be seated on the seating member in a straddling manner. Thus, the restraint felt by the user is reduced. The leg links coupled to the seating member are located in the inside leg of the user. Thus, the hands do not hit upper portions of the leg links when the user swings the arms during walk and can freely swing the arms. In addition, the walk supporting device is small in size unlike the conventional walk supporting devices including the frames surrounding a user and can be used even in a narrow place. Therefore, convenience of use is remarkably improved in conjunction with the reduction in the restraint and the ensuring of the freedom of swing of arms.
It is desirable that the leg links are coupled to the seating member to freely swing in the horizontal direction. This makes it possible to turn the legs of the user outward and increases a degree of freedom in movement of the legs of the user. However, this causes the following deficiencies.
The seating member is capable of rolling in the horizontal direction around a swing fulcrum in the horizontal direction of the leg links. Thus, when a point of action of a body weight on the seating member shifts in the horizontal direction with respect to the swing fulcrum in the horizontal direction of the leg links, the seating member greatly tilts in the horizontal direction.